Mark Steyn’s take on Boris Johnson
Interesting take, from someone who knew Johnson when.
I have no idea whether Steyn’s cynicism is justified in the case of Johnson. But I will say this: with Trump and Johnson, we certainly have larger-than-life personalities.
Neo,
Thank you for the link.
Wonderful, vintage Mark Steyn — one of my favorite columnists.
The other is Kurt Schlichter.
If BoJo pulls off the no-deal Brexit, freeing jolly old England from the EU boat anchor, he will have accomplished the purpose for which he was made Prime Minister —- rather like Winston saving the world back in the day after being consigned to perdition after the Gallipoli disaster. He might be turned out after that accomplishment, as Churchill was at the end of WWII, but the great work will have been completed.
And, heck, the Brits need to have some enjoyable political theater to brighten their days.
Unlike May, Johnson at least has promised to deliver Brexit, deal or no deal. He has basically put his political career on the line for it- it forces the Remain faction in Parliament to either concede or bring down the government before October 31st. Since they didn’t act immediately after Johnson took office, I assume there is no majority for forcing new elections.
UK: Right-on brigade exposes its own prejudices
By Trevor Phillips, who is black
It’s forbidden for Labour Party members like me to describe Boris Johnson as anything other than a racist and an Islamophobe, but while he is guilty of many distasteful acts I think I can say with certainty he is neither of those things. In fact, it’s this kind of brainless tribalism that has got us into our current mess.
The left-leaning bias against Johnson is most striking in the reaction to his cabinet appointments. A different prime minister would have been basking in the approval of the right-on brigade for having appointed more people of colour to the cabinet in 24 hours than all his predecessors managed in the past 300 years. But the gracelessness of modern politics is such that the very people who threw parties at the election of Barack Obama now complain about Johnson’s minority ministers. They sneer that the first non-white chancellor, Sajid Javid, is a “coconut” (brown outside, white inside), that the first ethnic minority woman to lead the Home Office is a dumb “snake”, and that the first black chairman of the Conservative Party is an “Uncle Tom”. This, of course, is a measure of their racism, not the prime minister’s.
The last jibe, by the way, is an ignorant and racist perversion of the heroic character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s eponymous novel. Abraham Lincoln attributed the clamour for the abolition of slavery to Stowe’s creation; so much for the anti-racist credentials of Johnson’s critics.
And yet the Corbynite glove puppets who are leading this disgraceful attack have nothing to say about a shadow cabinet that, perhaps for the first time in Labour’s history, boasts not a single member who professes the Jewish faith.
[big snip]
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/right-on-brigade-exposes-its-own-prejudices-6b3gxvff2
Artfldgr, so the British left is a lot like ours, projecting their own racism on their opponents.
Brexit is “closing the door after the horse has left the barn”.
Regardless of how much the U.K. reverses the E.U.’s economy killing regulations, Brexit is focusing on the problem of getting low on breakfast supplies, while ignoring the invader’s stealing their house out from under them.
Nor is Farage of any help since he too ignores the main threat while focused upon the lesser.
Is Johnson able to reverse the PC police state that the UK has been implementing prior to his watch? If not, then his time in office is, in the larger picture… meaningless.
The real point is that whether the U.K. is part of the E.U. or not changes not in the least the cliff’s edge that the U.K. is rushing toward.
Churchill and all before him are rolling over in their graves, as they witness from on high their descendants throw it all away…
This may have appeared here before, but in case it hasn’t: an interesting profile appeared at Quillette a week or two ago:
https://quillette.com/2019/07/23/cometh-the-hour-cometh-the-man-a-profile-of-boris-johnson/